Wireless Sensing for Survivable Machinery Control

The opportunity presented is to develop a robust innovative shipboard wireless network architecture capable of communication among "intelligent" components within a machinery control system. Significant cost savings can be realized in ship installation if the resultant network is capable of operation within, through, and around multiple steel compartments, bulkheads, and obstructions. The evaluation and development of a scalable hybrid fiber wireless system will enable Future Naval Capabilities to realize a highly automated ship necessary to attain manning reduction goals. State of the art control and automation systems impart distributed control as opposed to centralized architectures. Each control node is an "intelligent" autonomous device that is a member of a logical group capable of inter-node communications. Nodes share information to facilitate independent control. The architecture developed under this Phase I will significantly reduce the network installation cost, the overall system weight, provide a highly survivable control system, and enable technology insertion of the new system on existing platforms.